Bon Iver

Best of Coachella: Weekend One

Karen O's Outfit Karen O's wardrobe on Friday night was bad ass. The Yeah Yeah Yeah's front woman appeared on the main stage in a technicolor cape draped over a suit that looked like it was made of mercury. The vibrant collage was topped with a headpiece that Liberace might have worn had he ever bee ... More >>

Mark Kozelek - First Unitarian Church - 2/23/13

Mark Kozelek First Unitarian Church 2/23/13 There are few unforgettable shows I can recall that don't also take in to account more insubstantial factors like lighting, stage presence and the people you happened to see them with. Performers like Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon and Red House Painters ma ... More >>

Sorry, But Kanye Is the GOAT

Kanye West is the greatest hip-hop artist of all time. He's made the best albums and changed the game the most, and his music is the most likely to endure. One thing before we get going: This isn't one of those arguments meant to piss people off or "start a conversation." We really mean it. And, c ... More >>

Dustin Thomason on His Novel 12.21, a Maya Calendar Doomsday Thriller

L.A. author Dustin Thomason wrote the bestseller The Rule of Four with Ian Caldwell. He's now going solo with 12.21, published in August, about a doctor trying to save civilization from destruction on Dec. 21, 2012, which is when the world will supposedly end, according to the Maya calendar. Publish ... More >>

We Gave Charlie Manson's New Record Half a Listen and It Sucks

Let's all try to be really open-minded for a hot second. Records Ad Nauseam, a niche record label run out of the Hollywood boutique Beauty is Pain, just put out a vinyl LP of never-before-released Charles Manson music. Recorded on tape in a room above the chapel at Vacaville Medical Facility in th ... More >>

The Silver Lake Chorus Somehow Recruited All Your Favorite Indie Artists

The Silver Lake Chorus formed in the winter of 2010 through word of mouth, flyers ("can you or anyone you know sing tenor?") and Facebook. Auditions pared 60 hopeful singers down to a choir of 25 young men and women, many of whom had previous choral experience and most of whom actually reside in Sil ... More >>

The 20 Worst Hipster Bands: The Complete List

The 20 Worst Hipster Bands: 10-1 Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time Top 20 Musicians of All Time, in Any Genre Top 20 Whitest Musicians of All Time Who are these hipsters we see each day in the streets, on our Tumblr feeds, and on the local news? And why are so many in bands? It's not the mere existen ... More >>

The 20 Worst Hipster Bands: 10-1

Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time Top 20 Musicians of All Time, in Any Genre Top 20 Whitest Musicians of All Time 10. White Rabbits Why do bands need a second drummer? In recent years everyone from Local Natives to Bon Iver to fucking Radiohead has thrown a second kit out there, or at least a floor to ... More >>

Music Picks: Charli XCX, Polica, Esperanza Spalding and More

Beachwood Sparks Are One of L.A.'s Most Influential Bands You Don't Know

With folk music back in the mainstream consciousness via acts like Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, the timing for Beachwood Sparks' reunion is right. "I think we were one of the bands that paved the way for that," founding member and bassist Brent Rademaker tells us. He's excited to talk about their new a ... More >>

Prince Just Turned 54: Some Required Reading

By Reed Fischer If Prince was sticking to his Jehovah's Witness faith, he didn't celebrate his 54th birthday last week. (The religion considers birthdays pagan.) And, giving him gifts is pointless anyhow, because he's probably at the point where he has everything -- purple, anyhow -- already. Not ... More >>

Sun Araw, Eagles of Death Metal, Lil' Kim

Also, Harry Partch's Bitter Music, Jonneine Zapata, Alan Pasqua Trio and others

Sasquatch! 2012 Wrap-Up: Trivia For The Casual Observer

By Chris Kornelis Sasquatch! went down this past weekend in George, Washington. Test your knowledge of the 2012 edition of the festival in this multiple-choice trivia test. For clues, check out our sister paper Seattle Weekly's coverage of the happenings on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 1. At w ... More >>

Aloe Blacc, Maya Jupiter, La Sera - Silver Lake Jubilee - 5/27/2012

Aloe Blacc, Maya Jupiter, La Sera, Incan Abraham Silver Lake Jubilee 5/27/2012 See also: *Our review of Jubilee on Saturday: Kinky, La Santa Cecilia, Las Cafeteras *La Sera's Katy Goodman: Ya Gotta Have Heartbreak Better than... your uncle's Memorial Day barbecue. On another quintessentially b ... More >>

Music Picks: Too $hort, Best Coast, Brad Mehldau Trio

Also, Lee Fields & the Expressions, Simon Stokes, Sonnymoon, and others

Bon Iver - Coachella - 4/21/12

​Bon Iver Coachella April 21, 2012 See also: *Our Complete Coachella Coverage *Bon Iver - The Shrine Auditorium - 9-19-11 Better than...trying to dance off your sunburn. Flickering strands of glowing balloons swayed gently over the polo fields as the crowd drew in for Bon Iver's set on the ma ... More >>

Coachella: Seven Lesser-Known Acts You'd Be Silly to Miss

2012 Grammys: The Best, the Worst and the Weirdest

Rebecca HaithcoatDrake's after-party​See also: *Why The Grammys Stink *Deadmau5, Rihanna - House of Blues - 2/13/12 *Dan Wilson: From "Closing Time" to Adele's "Someone Like You" Adele won everything. Kanye didn't show. Nicki Minaj out-Gaga'ed Gaga by showing up with a Pope imitator as her e ... More >>

The Albums the Critics Were Wrong About

Two thousand eleven was the year in which musicians were praised for embracing their essences. M83 gets even more epic! Bradford Cox gets even more introverted! Drake gets Draker! The members of Wild Flag still rock! Artists were also derided for the obvious: Odd Future proves they don't give a fu ... More >>

The Best Los Angeles Concerts Of 2011

​5. Bon Iver Shrine Auditorium, September 19th In 2009, Justin Vernon and his band, Bon Iver, received glowing reviews for their beautiful performance at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, playing at dawn as the first lights of sunlight reached across the L.A. skyline. So when the band finally retur ... More >>

Best Posts of the Week

Kelly ClancyLionel Boyce​TGIF. Who's ready for a drink? We're here to offer you a bit of pregame entertainment, by way of our best West Coast Sound posts of the week. Let's start by bringing you up to date on our new columns. If you haven't yet, be sure to check out Odd Future member Lionel B ... More >>

Bon Iver - The Shrine Auditorium - 9-19-11

Timothy NorrisBon Iver​Bon Iver and Other Lives The Shrine Auditorium September 19, 2011 Better than... Monday Night Football Last night around 8pm most of the crowd in the Shrine Auditorium was under the crystal chandeliers in the lobby fighting for a drink and trying to forget that Monday ... More >>

James Blake - The Music Box - 9-18-11

Jessica Comingore​By Aly Comingore James Blake and Teengirl Fantasy The Music Box September 18, 2011 Better than... an Emmys after party Those who caught James Blake's recent L.A. shows -- at the Troubadour and Hollywood Forever Cemetery, respectively -- know this Englander is best caught ... More >>

Music Picks: Joan Osborne, Tears for Fears, the Cute Lepers, J. Cole, Low

Also Bon Iver, Cerebellion, Surfer Blood and others

Music Picks: Los Lobos, Lord Huron, Calculator, Exmortus

Also, Yes, Styx, the Naked and Famous and others

Music Picks: Bob Dylan, Azalia Snail, Makabert Fynd, Seun Kuti

Also, No Age, Crystal Antlers, Imelda May and others

Music Picks: Adele, Wanda Jackson, Bootsy Collins, Buffalo Springfield, Gayngs, Amor de Dias

Also, Cerebral Ballzy, Sea of Bees, Shabazz Palaces, Miasmal and others

Page Two: Passion of the Live

Music Picks: She Wants Revenge, Nilbog, Lady Gaga

Also, Men, Ice Cube, OMD, the Aussie BBQ and others

Interview: Bomb Zombies On Autotune, Smashing Pumpkins, Moms

​ Bomb Zombies "FWUH (Fuckwhatchaheard)" by Hellfyre Club Bomb Zombies is a collaboration between Low End Theory's DJ Nobody and Nocando, offering smart lyrics executed overbass-heavy 808-and-autotune backing tracks. Their Sincerely Yours EP with a provocative cover was released two w ... More >>

Music Picks: Amanda Jo Williams, Usher, Masaki Batoh, Procol Harum

Also, Dustin Wong, Greg Dulli, Ghostface Killah

"I'm Not So Hateful As I Used to Be": The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde and Former Lover J.P. Jones Discuss New Band JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys

Chrissie Hynde and J.P. Jones​ After 30 years of leading the Pretenders, singer-guitarist Chrissie Hynde has run away and joined the circus. Or, to be more specific, she's joined JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys, a new band with the Welsh singer-guitarist J.P. Jones. In Great Britain, fairg ... More >>

Randall Roberts' LA Weekly Feature Following Ozomatli into Burma Wins Prestigious AltWeekly Award

​An LA Weekly piece by our former Music Editor (and current LA Times Music Editor) Randall Roberts about LA band Ozomatli's tour of South East Asia has just been chosen as the best Arts feature of 2009 at the 2010 edition of the AltWeekly Awards. Another LA Weekly piece, about the fascinating ... More >>

Q&A: DJ Nobody on Love, Auto-Tune and Low End Theory (Plus, Download his Entire New LP for Free)

DJ Nobody​Resident Low End Theory wax-spinner Nobody is much more than a DJ. Over the years he's been a producer for the likes of Busdriver and Nocando. He's been a bandleader for the dream-pop outfit Blank Blue. He's collaborated with Mia Doi Todd and Dntel. He's even been covered by Devendr ... More >>

Music Picks: Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, VoicesVoices, Peter Gabriel, Jakob Dylan

Also, Ane Brun, the Melodians, Kate Miller-Heidke, Ian Whitcomb and others

Review: Coathangers, Surfer Blood Dominate Echo Park's Waved Out Festival

​Score one for the blogosphere. On Saturday, L.A. music blog Aquarium Drunkard invaded Echo Park to throw its first ever festival. Waved Out drew hundreds of kids out to the East Side, and they spent the day running up and down the stairs that adjoin the Echo to its larger, sub-Sunset cousin ... More >>

INCHES reviews Ascend, Blank Realm, Active Child, Ernest Gonzales [MP3s]

In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy record-making community (artists and labels, indie or other), believing tha ... More >>

Live at Velaslavasay Panorama: The Long Lost, Featuring Singing Saws and a Glass Harp

This short piece, one in the Vision Version series produced by the Dublab collective, is one of the ongoing music project's most beautiful yet. Filmed at the Velaslavasay Panorama in West Adams, it features LA husband-and-wife team of Laura and Alfred "Deadus" Darlington, who record as the Long Lost ... More >>

"Wait! Who's That Singing????": Top Ten List of Major Stars Covering Other People's Music

Bowie also waited for his man​Pitchfork reports that Peter Gabriel will be releasing an album of covers, in which he will tackle hits and more obscure cuts by David Bowie, Paul Simon, Elbow, Bon Iver, Talking Heads, The Arcade Fire, Regina Spektor, Radiohead, Lou Reed ("The Power of the Heart" ... More >>

Rock Picks: Rain Machine, Pearl Jam, Wallpaper, Bon Iver, Dodos

Also, Seasons, Brodinski, Autolux and others

On Sale at Noon: Bon Iver Sunrise Show at Hollywood Forever

Bon Iver and the Bone Yard: Wisconsinites to Play Sunrise Show at Hollywood Forever.

Department of Eagles and Cave Singers at the Troubadour: Adorers, and Harmonies, Galore

(Photos by Timothy Norris. View more photos in the Department of Eagles slideshow.) This was supposed to be the weekend that New York took over da clubs with its uniquely American sounds. The Animal Collective was gigging two sold out shows on Friday and Saturday, and Department of Eagles and th ... More >>

Pazz & Jop 2008: LA Shut Out of Top Ten

The critics apparently aren't feeling LA music this year; it's been twelve years since LA snagged the number one spot on the estimable Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll (for Beck's Odelay). All the city got in the top 20 of the album category this year was a #13 nod for No Age's Nouns, and She ... More >>

Heath Ledger's Projects With L.A. Art Collective 'The Masses' Reach Fruition

But the star's presence is still missed

Top 10 Americana Albums of 2008

By Noah W. Bailey Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category.Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen ... More >>

Rock Picks: Digable Planets, Pigeon John, the Wedding Present, Prima Donna

Also, Josh Rouse, the Raconteurs, Chicha Libre and more

Heath Ledger's Final Days Among the Masses

L.A. Art Collective Struggles to Go On After Actor's Death

Videos from The Masses

Below are a few videos mentioned in this week's feature on the Masses. (All text by Randall Roberts) The Masses in Marfa: Edited by Matt Amato In the first week of May, the Masses art collective gathered a dozen-and-a-half kindreds and traveled to Marfa, Texas for the first an ... More >>

Tonight at Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre: Dublab Goes Dark

This should be fantastic tonight: installment five of Dublab After Dark, an ongoing visual extension of the aurally amazing Dublab collective. They explain what will happen tonight better than we could: "The web radio super station your ears love also loves your eyes. This fifth in dublab’s scre ... More >>